THE Zoo.ocist—J ULY, 1876, 4979 
Selborne, whom every naturalist, from boyhood upwards, has 
learned to respect for his quaint, simple and truthful observations. 
These valuable letters are given in full later in the ‘ Transactions,’ 
and form a most interesting portion of them. With them is an 
autotype fac-simile of Gilbert White’s handwriting and signature. 
This alone is worth the price of the book. The President says— 
“Tneed not refer to their contents more than to call attention to the 
fact that Mr. Marsham obtained at Stratton a bird (Tichodroma muraria) 
not known to have been before observed in this country: Gilbert White's 
remark that Mr. Marsham would ‘have the satisfaction of introducing a 
new bird of which future ornithologists will say—found at Stratton in 
Norfolk by that painful and accurate naturalist, Robert Marsham, Esq.,’. 
after an interval of 82 years will at length be fulfilled. To Professor Bell, 
now the occupant of White’s house, and the diligent collector of every 
memorial of him, we are under the great obligation of receiving copies of 
Marsham’s letters to White, thus enabling us to complete the correspond- 
ence of the two eminent naturalists.” 
These letters are published with the leave of the Rev. H. P. 
Marsham, F.R.S., and addressed by Gilbert White to Robert 
Marsham, great-grandfather of the reverend donor. To read these 
letters brings back the boyish joys we felt when we first “ devoured” 
a copy of White’s letters. We advise all who have not read these 
newly unearthed letters to lose no time in doing so. Who, after 
the first smile at its quaintness is past, can read the following 
without admiration ?>— 
“ As you seem to know the Fern-owl, or Churn-owl, or Eve-jar; I shall 
send you, for your amusement, the following account of that curious, 
nocturnal, migratory bird. The country people here have a notion that the 
Fern-owl, which they also call Puckeridge, is very injurious to weanling 
calves by inflicting, as it strikes at them, the fatal distemper known to 
cow-leeches hy the name of puckeridge. Thus does this harmless, illfated 
bird fall under a double imputation, which it by no means deserves ;—in 
Italy of sucking the teats of goats, where it is called Caprimulgus; & 
with us, of communicating a deadly disorder to cattle. But the truth of 
the matter is, the malady above-mentioned is occasioned by a dipterous 
insect called the wstrus bovis, which lays it’s eggs along the backs of kine, 
where the maggots, when hatched, eat their way thro’ the hide of the beast 
into it’s flesh, & grow toa large size. I have just talked with a man, who 
says, he has been employed, more than once, in stripping calves that had 
dyed of the puckeridge: that the ail, or complaint lay along the chine, where 
the flesh was much swelled, & filled with purulent matter. Once myself I 
